Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Tuesday has "not accepted" the letters of resignation submitted by 12 MPs — eight from the Congress and two each from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
The MPs had submitted their papers in July/August this year protesting the UPA-II government's delay in introducing the Bill on the formation of a separate Telangana State.
Sources said the Speaker's decision was conveyed to the MPs individually over the telephone by a joint secretary of the Lok Sabha Secretariat in the morning.
Though they were not informed the reasons for "not accepting" their letters, sources pointed out various reasons for taking such a decision.
They include — some of the "resignation" papers were not in the format prescribed by the Lok Sabha Secretariat as under Rule 240, the members were not supposed to mention the reasons for their resignation and it should be voluntary; some of those members attended the parliament session, committee meetings and even gave written questions to the Secretariat which showed that they were "not serious" in their decision to resign.
Regarding the resignation letter submitted by Congress members K. Rajagopal Reddy (Bongir) and Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy (Nellore), sources said the papers were still under the consideration of the Speaker and the former has been asked to appear before her on Thursday to cross-check whether he wanted to quit voluntarily.
It may be recalled that Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy had wanted to quit his Lok Sabha seat protesting the inclusion of the name of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the FIR by the CBI against YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for allegedly possessing disproportionate assets.
The 12 MPs whose papers were not accepted by Ms. Meira Kumar are: Congress - Madhu Yaski Goud (Nizamabad), Suresh Kumar Shetkar (Zahirabad), Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Dr. M. Jagannath (Nagar Kurnool), Dr. G. Vivekanand (Pedapally), G. Sukhender Reddy (Nalgonda), P. Balram Naik (Mahabubabad) and Siricilla Rajaiah (Warangal), TDP – Nama Nageswara Rao (Khammam) and Ramesh Rathod (Adilabad-ST), TRS — K. Chandrasekhara Rao ((Mahabhubnagar) and M. Vijaya Shanti (Medak).
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha sources said their Chairman and Vice-President Hamid Ansari was still examining the resignation letters given by Congress member K. Kesava Rao and TDP's Gundu Sudharani. The two MPs claimed that they had wanted to quit from the Rajya Sabha protesting the inordinate delay in announcing the formation of Telangana.
Reacting to the Speaker's decision Congress MP G. Vivekanand said the Telangana Congress MPs would continue to exert pressure on the Congress party and the UPA-II government and ensure that the government came out with the Bill for the formation of Telangana in the ensuing winter session of parliament. "People of our constituency have asked us to participate in the parliamentary proceedings and stall the House to exert pressure on the government for the separate State. We will do accordingly." There was no question of accepting the proposal of formation of second State Reorganisation Commission or setting up of Telangana regional council, he said.
Another MP Dr. M. Jagannath said the party MPs of the region would soon meet and decide the next course of action. There was no question of losing momentum to fight for the new State, he said.
